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Sunday, December 14, 2014

Picked up some deals!

Busy day yesterday. We didn't really plan on it, but we ended up doing a bunch of shopping. One of the other campers here, Rick from Washington, was going in to the Costco store in Puerto Vallarta and we were going to take the bus in anyhow so he offered us a ride. We ended up just staying with him and picked up a few items at each stop.

We were gone almost four hours!

The main reason we were headed into town was to buy a map. The best highway map book in Mexico is made by Guia Roji and is a spiral bound book with very detailed maps.

2015 version!

We had one, but it was well used and it was the 2008 version. It went with us in the little blue car last time we drove back to Canada. So we needed a new one, and we were having a hard time finding one. We had checked the Walmart and the Mega stores here, but no luck. This time, we stopped at a Pemex gas station where there was an Oxxo store. They had one left! It was 220 pesos ($18.26), which is not bad. You really do want to have one of these with you for any driving in Mexico. You can buy one at Amazon before you cross the border, but it's a little more money.

The other thing we were looking for was some kind of gluten free cereal.

We went in to both Sam's Club and Costco with Rick. He has a membership to both, so we could buy a few items there if we saw anything worthwhile. We know our prices pretty good though, and we didn't see very much that we considered a "deal". We did pick up a few things. An oversized bag of my favorite peanuts for only 47 pesos ($3.90). A 1.2 kg (2.7 lb) block of cheese for 111 pesos ($9.21). And a 24 pack of my favorite beer for 232 pesos ($19.25). Not a huge savings, but a dollar or two makes it worth it.

But the real deal came when we stopped at the big Chedraui store. They had their entire selection of wine on sale at 20% off. So we stocked up on the kind that we like. It was a great price to begin with, but with another 20% we would never see it any cheaper. So we bought 12 litres! At 31 pesos ($2.54) per litre. Good deal.

Oh, and a bottle of cheap tequila for 65 pesos ($5.33) and a bottle of scotch for 89 pesos ($7.39). If nothing else, at least the booze cabinet is stocked for the rest of the month!

Not a great deal on the gluten free cereal though. We did find a bag of gluten free oats, and we bit the bullet at 129 pesos ($10.58). Yikes. You can buy a four pack on Amazon for $17!

While we were gone, the propane truck came to the park. I had asked Garry to get it filled for us, and sure enough that was accomplished. Propane has gone up in price though, unless this guy was just extra expensive. Last time we had it filled up in Jalisco, it was 6.18 pesos (51 cents) per litre, this time it was 7.78 pesos (64 cents) per litre. Still cheaper than what it is in Canada though.

Oh, some of you asked about seeing the interior layout of the 19 ft Class C motorhome that Rick and Patty own. They are also traveling with a full size pickup truck and trailer, so they have lots of room for their four dogs!

It's a 2012 model, on a 2011 chassis.

With one dining room slideout.

The shower stall is bigger than Sherman's!

Good use of space.

It's actually a tall unit. I'm just over 6 feet and there's a good four inches between my head and the ceiling.

The smaller fridge would be a challenge. And we would want an actual gas oven Ruth uses ours a lot.

The kitchen table.

But the trade off of course, is the size of the unit. It's only 19 feet long. And with an 8 cylinder Ford chassis it gets 17 mpg on the highway which is pretty darn good. And it has only single rear wheels, so the weight is such that you don't need the added expense of dual tires on the back.

As with any RV of any size, there are drawbacks and benefits. You just have to know what's the most important to you.

This little motorhome is for sale by the way. Somewhere around $35,000 which I thought was not too bad for a 2012 rig with 21,000 miles on it.

The scouts are still here. They've had all kinds of activities on the go!

The obstacle course!

Looks like fun.

Huge bonfire last night!

Today is our last full day here at the ranch. As much as we like it here, we're getting antsy to get on the road "searching for adventure" as our old friend Tioga George used to say!

Cute little motorhome. In the ten years that we had our Class A, I think we used the oven maybe three times, but at least we did use it. A lot of folks don't. Either because they're a little leary of the open flame, or just not too clued it to its overall functionality. I'm afraid that I'd be sleeping in the overhead sleeping area by myself. We tried it once, many years ago. Actually, it was more like "twice". First time, and last time. Too claustrophobic for the two of us.

It is a perfect size for traveling in Mexico. You are totally right on the oven, we have read that lots of people just use their oven as a storage place for their pots and pans. We use ours a lot and rarely used our microwave, that was our bread box until we took it our a few years ago and now it is a cupboard for our pots and pans.

I believe that Patty told us that Rick normally sleeps in the overhead bed and she will sleep in the dinette area. There is actually quite a bit of space between the bed and the ceiling, not like what I remember in our slide on camper truck when I was a kid.

You had my curiosity up the other day so I went on line and looked at different Class Cs that are 19ft. One had a smaller L-shaped kitchen which left room for a corner bed in the back. Not bad at all considering the size, gas mileage and the fact that without dually less expense if you take toll highways.

That's what Kevin was saying, you really have to do your research and decide what unit best suits your needs because everybody's needs are different. Traveling fulltime in a smaller unit means that you need to travel in areas where the climate permits you to spend more time outside.

Have to admit, I don't think we would like a corner bed. We like that small unit we saw this summer that had the Murphy bed in it. We would have to have an oven in our unit if we were fulltiming, I don't think I could do without one.

Okay, this is a long story... you better make yourself comfortable! Some of our long time readers might remember that I (Kevin) need to ge...

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